Climate change threatens the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of many Indigenous communities. Traditional owners are aware of changes to country, but not necessarily the climate change science explaining the changes. Without understanding the context of the changes, it is difficult to prepare for a future that is very different from the past.

We worked with a Traditional Owner group from the Whitsunday region in Queensland to develop a package of introductory climate change information for use in outreach activities. The material, a combination of traditional knowledge from the region and the Hub’s science, is being used to help Indigenous communities prepare for the impacts of climate change on country. It is intended to not only serve as an introduction to climate change but also a conversation starter that gets communities thinking about how climate change will impact on them, and what they need to do to prepare for it.